GMC mgmt closes unauthorised gate

Amritsar, July 17

A day after the news highlighting the unauthorised entrance at Government Medical College here allegedly being used by touts and agents to sneak inside the premises to fleece poor patients was published in these columns, the hospital management closed it with a brick wall with help from the police.

High drama prevailed at the site as a group of shopkeepers claimed that the matter is in court and accused the hospital management of high-handedness. The shopkeepers alleged that the gate is being closed to benefit the chemists who have their shops near the main entrance of the hospital.

Balwinder Kaur, a protester, said the gate was opened when Anil Joshi was the Minister for Medical Education and Research. She said the hospital management wants to close the gate as it was meant to benefit other shops. She said that closing of the gate would be against the interests of the chemists who have their shops near this ‘unauthorised’ gate.

Meanwhile, Medical Superintendent of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, Dr Karanjit Singh said, “There is no provision of a gate at the place as per the master plan of GMC and GNDH.” He said that some people had broken the wall on last Tuesday and installed a gate. He said that it was removed afterwards and now it has been permanently closed.

Dr Karanjit Singh said that the gate was closed earlier too on the recommendations of Vidhan Sabha’s Assurance Committee when people had complained of touts and agents using it to take out patients after luring them. “The patients are free to buy medicines from any shop and the hospital management is not concerned. Moreover, nearly 80 per cent of the required medicines are given free from cost from the hospital itself,” he said.

Sub-inspector Harmanjit Singh who arrived along with a police team said that they had received a complaint from the hospital management. He said that the gate has now been closed and shopkeepers have been warned against taking law into their hands.